Volume One, Chapter Seven: The Chilling Flame

Hunger, tension, fear, and the solid impact against a tree—all combined to make stars dance before my eyes. For a fleeting moment, I even saw Chang’e playing jump rope right in front of me.

I tried to struggle to my feet, but my limbs no longer obeyed. After several attempts, I decided to rest for a while. Even a motorcycle would explode if driven too long; how much more fragile was my mortal body.

As soon as my body settled, my mind ran wild with irrational thoughts—images of Chu Renmei singing in the river from “The Old Corpse of the Mountain Village,” the blood altar and mummified corpse from “Young Detective Bao,” and even the Japanese horror figure Sadako haunted my thoughts.

No, no, I couldn’t think like this. People scare people, and that can be deadly. I needed to think of something cheerful.

I forced myself to search my mind for comedy films. Classic scenes sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain: “The Lamp Grass Monk,” “Dancing with Ducks,” “Peach Blossom Maturity,” “The Jade Lotus: The Jade Maiden’s Heart Manual”…

Yes, the word for lust has a knife on top. If wielded properly, that knife won’t harm oneself but can cut down all demons and monsters.

Right, right—think of heroic figures: Ai Iijima, Maria Ozawa, Megumi Asami…

Unexpectedly, these usually reliable champions all fell silent at this moment, failing to spark any interest. Damn it, book knowledge is shallow. To truly rely on beauty—youth, grace, fullness, the ideal wife from another family, and a tender touch…

That trick actually worked. By dispersing the blood flow throughout my body, I suddenly felt fearless.

No wonder when Stephen Chow ripped bullets from his body in “Shaolin Soccer” while watching the video “Spring Tides Blooming Begonia Red,” that trick really helped. I just wonder what Guan Yu watched when he scraped his bone to heal.

No back pain, no leg soreness, and capable of climbing six floors in one breath—I could definitely run another two miles now.

After running for a while, a fire suddenly appeared ahead, like a bonfire someone had built. Haha, when life seems hopeless, a way always appears. I, Xu, was destined to ascend.

Approaching, I saw five older men warming themselves by the fire, all fast asleep under tattered sheepskins. Judging by their attire, they were either ginseng harvesters or hunters—definitely not ordinary villagers.

They were sound asleep and unresponsive even with me nearby. I wanted to greet them but feared waking them only to receive a kick, so I sat beside them, planning to rest through the night. At dawn, everything would be easier.

In truth, I was afraid they might be bad people—anyone spending the night in the mountains had to be either a reckless ginseng picker or an illegal poacher. But no matter what, they were still human, and that gave me some sense of security.

Just as I caught my breath and prepared to doze off, I sensed something was amiss.

Sitting by the fire, I felt no warmth—only a chilling coldness that pierced to the bone.

Even in the dead of winter, sitting by a fire would radiate heat; this was autumn, yet there was none.

Something was wrong. The fire wasn’t right. No one added fuel, and the flames never changed. In fact, even the flickering of the fire was repeating exactly.

It reminded me of the fire basins in temples during New Year’s, where lights and fans beneath a red cloth created the illusion of dancing flames.

Cold sweat ran down my neck. Looking at the men beside me, they appeared asleep but gave off an aura of unconsciousness—breathing, yes, but unable to awaken.

Any normal group spending the night in the mountains would have a night watch. What were these people up to?

Cautiously, I lifted the tattered sheepskin covering one man. My scalp tingled. His worn, frayed coarse hemp jacket was stained with greasy black cotton batting.

My heavens, this was the style of Qing Dynasty clothing. Could these be vengeful spirits from that era?

But that made no sense. How could a mere mortal like me see ghosts?

To test this, I swallowed hard and summoned courage to wake one familiar-looking man. The worst that could happen was a kick, which would at least confirm he was human.

“What do you want?” the man grunted roughly.

I felt like falling to my knees. He was human—a living, breathing human.

“I’m asking you, kid, what are you doing here?”

“N-nothing, I got lost. I just want to stay with you guys for the night.”

The man impatiently gestured beside him. “Hurry up and find a place to sleep. We just ate and drank. Don’t disturb me.”

I inwardly rejoiced—this time, no mistake, they were real people.

Still cautious, I moved away from the fire and, recalling the Monkey King’s circle-drawing trick, used my boy’s urine to draw a protective circle around myself.

Legend says cinnabar, peach wood, black dog’s blood, and boy’s urine are four great wards against evil. Whether true or not, a circle of urine was better than nothing.

Though I wanted to sleep, my stomach growled fiercely, but with no food, I endured. Fortunately, the surroundings were unusually quiet, and I soon fell asleep.

Early the next morning, I woke to a burning pain all over, my backside stiff as if resting on a plank. The others and the fire were gone.

Confused, I slapped myself twice to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

Had those men left?

Looking at my arms, they were covered in scratches—surely from branches while escaping last night.

Feeling under me, something hard blocked me. Recklessly, I picked it up and, to my shock, it was a human leg bone.

“Damn!” I cursed, scrambling up and wiping my hands on my clothes.

“Man, awake?”

Without knowing when he’d appeared, Master Ma stood behind me. I glared at him. “Old man, what exactly do you want?”

Master Ma chuckled, “Hey, you ungrateful one, what else? I brought you some food.”

He then produced a roast chicken and continued, “You’ve run quite a distance, kid.”

I hesitated for a moment, then took the chicken and stuffed my mouth, not even bothering to speak. I had to eat first; only full could I muster the strength to run. I had to get away.

The roast chicken tasted nothing like I imagined—no aroma, and it felt like chewing wax. Still, it was food.

“After you finish, we’ll head deeper into the mountain.”

“I’m not going. I want to go home.”

“Go home? How do you plan to get out of this vast mountain range?”

“How can I not? I met several people last night.”

“Hm? How do you know they were people and not ghosts?”

Master Ma’s words sent a chill down my spine. Deep down, I too felt those weren’t ordinary humans. But now it was daytime, and no matter how fierce the vengeful spirits, they wouldn’t dare cause trouble in daylight. I had a whole day to escape.